* USDA export sales data buoys market sentiment
* Cotton defies weakness in outside markets

NEW YORK, March 22 (Reuters) - Cotton futures settled firmer
Thursday on combined speculative and suspected consumer buying,
with a government export sales report giving the market a boost,
analysts said.
The benchmark May contract on ICE Futures U.S. rose
1.27 cents, or 1.44 percent, to end at 89.58 cents per lb,
dealing from 88.05 to 89.74 cents.
Volume traded Thursday amounted to slightly under 18,500
lots, about a quarter under the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters
data showed.
The U.S. Agriculture Department's weekly export sales report
showed net upland U.S. cotton sales stood at 197,000 running
bales (RBs, 500-lbs each), which is up 30 percent on the 4-week
average. Cotton export shipments hit 297,100 RBs.
The top buyer and destination remained China, the world's
leading consumer of cotton.
Many market participants have forecast that prices should
weaken given projected increases in production and cotton stocks
in the upcoming 2012/13 season.
"The (cotton) market may have discounted the bear stuff,"
said Mike Stevens, an independent cotton analyst in Louisiana.
Another dealer said cotton futures have found solid support
at 87 cents, basis May, because it is an area where mill and
trade buying has shown up.
Open interest, an indicator of investor exposure, rose for
the 10th straight session to 189,093 lots as of March 21, the
highest since Feb. 14, ICE Futures U.S. data showed.
Investors will be looking at the weekly U.S. CFTC report to
see if investors continued increasing short positions in the
cotton market. The report is due out Friday.
Last week, the CFTC said net short positions in the cotton
market stood at 7,553 lots, against a net long position of more
than 14,000 lots at the start of February.